With Boston’s bats cold again at Yankee Stadium, some quick hitting by Red Sox rookie manager Chad Tracy led to another early postseason exit.
And starter Sonny Gray wasn’t happy about being lifted after just 70 pitches.
“I think I’m the best pitcher in the American League going through the order for the third time. I think that’s a fact,” Gray said in his postgame press conference. “I would have liked to have believed at that moment.”
For the second straight season, the Red Sox were sent home for the winter by their archrivals as the New York Yankees pulled off a 9-2 victory Wednesday night and a two-game sweep of their Wild Card Series.
Boston was outscored 18-2 overall and left to lament a miserable end to this rollercoaster ride of a season that included Tracy taking over when Alex Cora was fired in April.
Tracy’s decision-making came under scrutiny after both playoff games against the Yankees. In Boston’s 9-0 loss the night before, Tracy pulled starter Payton Tolle after 4 ⅔ innings and 83 pitches in a 1-0 game.
Last year, the Red Sox won the opening game of the Wild Card Series before losing to New York in a decisive Game 3 after being outhit by Cam Schlittler, who pitched another playoff gem against his hometown team on Tuesday night.
“To finish here twice in a row is tough,” Trevor Story said.
Against a Yankees lineup missing injured shortstop Aaron Judge, the Red Sox gave up 26 hits in two games despite a pair of effective performances from their starting pitchers.
At the plate, Boston mustered just seven hits and finally snapped a 26-inning postseason drought dating back to last year when Willson Contreras homered just over the right-center fence in the sixth Wednesday.
Sonny Gray had a 1.98 ERA in two starts against the Yankees in the 2026 regular season. (Photo by Caleb Bowlin/Getty Images)
“Obviously it’s been an eventful year,” Tracy said. “Right now, right now, you can’t think about much more than anything other than the fact that we just lost a playoff series.”
Needing a win to extend their season, the Red Sox sent Gray to the mound, and the 18-game winner certainly gave them a chance. Boston trailed 1-0 in the fifth when the right-hander allowed a two-run single to Ben Rice that put runners on the corners.
Then Tracy caught Gray, eager to deliver the ball to baseball’s best pitcher during the regular season.
“I felt good. You know, I felt fresh. I felt sharp. I felt like I was just out there competing. And yeah, I mean, I hit a solo homer and then a couple of singles, but I felt like I stayed on offense the whole time. I was just executing what I wanted to do,” Gray said. “I’m frustrated, for sure. You know, I’m not ready to be done. Too many emotions.”
Asked about the move, Contreras put a finger over his lips to seal them.
“It’s not enough when you have the talent, or you have the data, or you have the computers to tell you what to do, because that’s baseball,” he said. “The data is here to help us, but at the end of the day you’re going to need experience and veteran guys to win games.”
In both games of the series, Tracy gave the ball to lefty reliever Erik Miller after getting his first pitch.
On Tuesday, Rice greeted Miller with a 423-foot homer to center field.
On Wednesday, Tracy called Miller up to face another left-handed hitter, Cody Bellinger — who hit .274 against lefties this season and .259 against righties. In fact, his .310 batting average against lefties over the last two years was the best of any left-handed hitter in the majors.
Bellinger made Tracy and the Red Sox pay, lining an RBI single to right field.
“We’re struggling to score runs,” Tracy said. “And when you get into spots where you’re struggling to score runs, and you’re already getting behind, you feel like you have to be aggressive and come away.”
Back from a shoulder injury, ace starter Garrett Crochet entered the sixth for his first start since April 25 and first relief appearance since 2023 with the Chicago White Sox. The lefty led off with a strikeout, but Spencer Jones reached safely on a wild pitch and Crochet never got out.
Bellinger’s three-run homer off right-hander Garrett Whitlock capped a six-run inning that made it 8-1 and the Red Sox were done. A bullpen that led the majors with a 3.00 ERA during the regular season finished this streak with a 20.25 ERA after giving up 15 runs, 15 hits and seven walks in 6 ⅔ innings, with a .484 batting average.
Boston’s recent fall in the Bronx was a crushing end to a wild 2026 season for the Red Sox, who stumbled to a 32-46 start. Tracy was the captain at Triple-A Worcester before being promoted to interim manager in Boston, and the team finally began to take off with a four-game sweep of the Yankees at Fenway Park in late June.
After clinching a wild-card berth last week, the Red Sox removed the interim tag and named Tracy the 49th manager in team history, signing him to a three-year contract that runs through the 2029 season, with a club option for 2030. The team also exercised the 2029 and 2030 options in the Infield baseball office.
“I wasn’t there for the highs and lows,” Crochet said. “For this team to do what they did, to get to this point, it was nothing short of a miracle.”
Led by Gray and Contreras, among others, the Red Sox went on a 15-game hitting streak in July that tied a franchise record and used a 32-5 surge to get back into contention. They became the fourth team in major league history to reach the postseason after falling 14 games below .500 and the first to qualify after losing 44 of their first 75.
Gray, who can become a free agent after the World Series, went around the clubhouse to hug each of his teammates after Wednesday’s loss.
“I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished,” the pitcher said. “They left us dead there for a while.”
Reporting by the Associated Press.
